A candy bar for a reporter

July 29, 2012|On the Record, Off the Cuff

Knight

Before South Bend's school board meeting began on Wednesday, Bill Sniadecki, the board's vice president, gave a Tribune reporter a leftover Snickers bar and, with a smile on his face, told her the chocolate confection was the entree du jour for board members at their executive session, which had just concluded.

A Tribune story the week prior had described the board's plans to meet in executive session at the Harbor Grand, a waterfront hotel and resort -- as described on the business's website -- in New Buffalo.

Among other things, the story pointed out the price of entrees at the restaurant there ranged from $15 to $32.

The group was meeting in New Buffalo, according to Roger Parent, board president, to accommodate a volunteer consultant who, for medical reasons, was unable to travel to South Bend.

But after the story ran, Parent postponed the meeting, citing "undue attention to the location" potentially being a detriment to the group getting its work done.

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At the end of Wednesday's board meeting, Parent said that other restaurants in New Buffalo have come forward since the Tribune stories, offering their venues as possible locations for the consultant's meeting when it's rescheduled.

However, Parent said, the board now plans to meet at the district's administrative office in South Bend.

Ringing endorsement

Attorney Anthony Luber, who works for St. Joseph County's public defender's office, wasn't in the courtroom last week when he received an unlikely endorsement.

Dennis Knight, who had just been sentenced to 20 years in prison for an armed robbery last year, told Judge Jerome Frese that he didn't want a public defender representing him at his next trial -- scheduled for this fall for a different armed robbery charge.

Do you have the means to hire an attorney, Frese asked.

No, replied Knight, saying he planned on defending himself.

Frese advised against that, telling Knight it was more difficult than he imagined. He said that it might be good to have a public defender available, if just to provide advice.

"Can I pick which attorney I get?" Knight asked, saying there was only one public defender he wanted.

But Neil Weisman, Knight's court-appointed attorney, said public defenders are assigned at random. Defendants don't get to pick who they want.

The mayor of Logansport, Ind., won't have to worry about his yellow Chevrolet Corvette getting any more $20 parking tickets outside the City Building: He's creating his own spot in an area previously reserved for police squad cars in the city about 70 miles south of South Bend.

The Pharos-Tribune reported last week that a new parking space with a sign reading "Mayor Parking Only" was created Monday. Mayor Ted Franklin said he has been at odds with some members of the police department.

He was ticketed July 20. Franklin said the nose of his Corvette was sticking into a no-parking zone. According to a police report, the Corvette was ticketed after someone complained they had received a ticket for the same offense.

Franklin said he paid the ticket Monday -- the same day he created his new parking space.